New Commissions

Women of World War One

Most of us know that when thousands of men left
Wales to fight in France during the First World War, women stepped up to do
their duty. We know that women played a crucial role in the war effort, as
nurses and munitions workers, but how were their achievements recognised? Was
the war a great turning point in women’s lives? Were Welsh women winners or
losers after the war was over? Wales’s leading historian of women, lively and
learned Deirdre Beddoe, digs deep
into the archives to find out, and makes some fascinating discoveries along the
way.

“This
was the first total war. 40,000 Welsh men were killed. Whether you were a wife,
a sister, a daughter or a mother, you couldn’t fail to know someone who had
died. But women didn’t just play a passive role, they made an active contribution
to the War effort – and a vital one. By today, that contribution has largely
been forgotten. It’s time to put that right.”